Anonutopia, a Smart Contract Country, Announces the First Payout of Universal Basic Income to Its Citizens

The year 2018 was marked by boom in popularity of the blockchain technology. In a brief time thousands of startups have gathered billions of dollars for developing decentralized applications (dapps) that promise to bring disruptive changes in all fields of the economy. But the disruptive potential of the new technology goes far further into the areas of political and social organization. Blockchain’s killer app is – a country.

Blockchain Country

Using distributed ledger, cryptography, smart contracts and other available technologies, it is now possible to provide the services that existing countries provide to their citizens, but far more efficiently, fairly, with no room for systemic corruption, and in a truly democratic way. To achieve this, a decentralized autonomous country needs a decentralized monetary system based on a cryptocurrency with stable value (stable coin), dapps as a decentralized infrastructure for businesses and social services, a smart contract-based legal and administrative framework, and democratic decision making procedures.

Interestingly, it does not need territory. The sphere of influence of a decentralized autonomous country is everywhere, as long as there is Internet connection. By becoming a citizen of such country, one can use its services regardless of the present countries’ borders. This kind of country can thrive alongside existing countries, using the existing resources and infrastructure, offering its products and services on the global market, and in return transforming national economies and offering smarter solutions to local and global issues.

In June 2018 one such “smart contract” country – Anonutopia – was founded by hacktivists from Croatia by publicly announcing the development of its main cryptocurrency Anote and stable crypto-versions of Euro, US dollar, and Croatian kuna (the so-called cryptofiats). Soon followed the joining of Serbian Anonymous hacktivist group by publishing its cryptofiat pegged to Serbian dinar. A call for establishing other crypto-counterparts of the world’s countries and crowdfunding their development is also open for all interested groups and individuals.

Anonutopia’s Economy and Monetary System

The foundation that enables Anonutopia to be autonomous is its cryptocurrency-based monetary system. The main currency, Anote, is a Waves-platform based token which has several roles: crowdfunding coin, a decentralized stable coin with programmed price, as a collateral for stabilizing cryptofiats, and as the platform for Anonutopia’s dapps. Cryptofiats are stable coins pegged 1:1 to fiat currencies (or can be stabilized to other fixed reference). They serve as utility tokens for products and services, as infrastructure for the economy of a particular cryptocountry, i.e. a community gathered around a cryptofiat, thus acting as a bridge towards present monetary systems and economies.

Anonutopia will start its economy by developing decentralized platforms for its products and services for fulfilling its citizens needs – transport, housing, food, energy, communication – as well as offering them on the global market. Several basic elements of the financial infrastructure have already been developed (the cryptocurrency system, wallet, leased proof-of-stake oracles) with others such as integrated cryptocurrency exchange, ATMs, cash registers, Internet banking systems, personal bankers, and gateways soon to be developed.

Transport platform is being developed as a dapp for taxi, ride sharing, and delivery services. Future projects comprise housing and real estate app for short- and longterm accommodation rental, real estate leasing and sale, app that connects local producers of quality food directly with customers, private and secure communication software and hardware, investing in renewable energy resources and many others.

Being a Citizen in Anonutopia

Part of the profit that the commercial projects achieve by creating value through automation and using cutting-edge technology will be distributed to all Anonutopia’s citizens in the form of universal basic income (UBI). The amount of the UBI is determined by the size of the economy and the population of a particular cryptocountry This enables a seamless integration with the existing countries’ monetary systems, infrastructure, and legislation, as well as further decentralization of Anonutopia. UBI can also be multiplied by indexes (AUBIX) which are assigned to citizens that actively engage in Anonutopia’s development.

The rest of the profit goes to the fund for financing non-commercial products and services such as decentralized health care and easily accessible education. In addition, commercial projects will have side projects for social and charity work in their domain, such as opening anonymous women’s safe houses, food waste reduction programs, elderly care services etc. The fund’s volume is also linked to a particular cryptocountry’s economy and the distribution of the available resources is decided upon through democratic procedures by the cryptocountry’s citizens.

Anonutopia has announced that the experimental UBI program will be launched already at the beginning of 2019. First payouts of UBI and testing of the index system will be conducted among Anonutopia’s citizens. By becoming a citizen, besides the access to UBI, one is granted the right to directly participate in deciding the course of its cryptocountry’s development. Developing procedures and solutions for democratic decision-making in the new technological context is one of the Anonutopia’s core focuses. Application for citizenship is pretty simple, but in order to be able to exercise the rights the applicant has to go through a verification procedure.

There are also other ways for one to participate and earn in Anonutopia’s economy besides UBI and engaging in its development. It’s possible to invest in the decentralized financial infrastructure by leasing Waves tokens to Anote’s leased proof-of-stake oracles, by running an oracle, or by being a small or large scale gateway to other financial institutions. As an early adopter in the crowdfunding campaign one can profit simply from holding a certain amount of anotes or engaging in the referral program. Anonutopia is also open to collaboration with existing businesses.

Guiding ideas and plans

Anonutopia follows some basic principles in its work intrinsic to the blockchain technology it is built upon. Anonutopia highly values anonymity of its citizens, hence the Anon- in its name, both as a prerequisite for online privacy and security and as a defense against the dangerous trends in centralization powered by AI development. Particular attention is paid to developing tools for as well as educating Anonutopians on anonymity, privacy, security and information literacy. The mission is to realize possibilities of human collaboration and trust by releasing the potentials of the Internet as a decentralized medium. Paying no minds to the current political borders, it is at the same time everywhere and nowhere, utopia in the literal sense. Another guiding principle is transparency of Anonutopia’s activities, plans, and results. All the software is open source, available for review and contributions, and the plans are publicly stated and discussed. Decentralization and democratic decision-making ensure the open-ended nature of the system and its future path, thus making it a non-utopia.

Together with opening the citizenship application process, Anonutopia has started a viral crowdfunding campaign for its core projects. The plan is to test its developed platforms in the area of Southeast Europe. Choosing the Balkan countries as a test field for Anonutopia’s products and services is not random – with the recent history of different social and political systems, i.e. the post-communist climate and the transition problems, the loss of trust in the crumbling institutions of the society, huge corruption issues and massive emigration, these areas seem like a fertile ground for developing and implementing blockchain-powered economic, social, and political innovations. You can find out more about Anonutopia’s crowdfunding campaign here, and how to collect your 1 free Anote here.